Romanian central bank approves blockchain firm Elrond to buy Twispay

Published at: March 10, 2022

The National Bank of Romania has greenlighted an acquisition in the blockchain industry, authorizing the blockchain startup Elrond to acquire a payment processing platform.

Elrond, a blockchain firm focused on distributed applications, received approval to purchase the electronic money institution Capital Financial Services, which acts under the brand Twispay, according to an announcement released on Thursday.

Twispay provides an international payment solution supporting multiple fiat currencies and integrating various payment methods. The firm is a principal member of Visa and Mastercard, meaning that it directly participates in issuing cards and is allowed to acquire merchants.

The firm is also licensed to provide payment services and to issue electronic money in accordance with the authorization from the National Bank of Romania and can operate across the European Economic Area.

By acquiring Twispay, Elrond is making a strategic move to establish itself as a bridge between traditional finance and the cryptocurrency industry. The acquisition also puts Elrond in a strategic position to offer an infrastructure for faster and cheaper payment solutions.

Other potential use cases include new stablecoins, crypto-enabled debit cards, as well as benefits of DeFi, NFTs and other Web3 technologies that will enhance trust and efficiency for existing financial systems. A spokesperson for Elrond told Cointelegraph that stablecoins issuance is one of the biggest goals behind the new acquisition, stating:

"The main goal is to leverage Twispay's e-money license for issuing stablecoins that can be used in the EU, both for personal and business use for payments and value transfer, as well as potentially for official use at institutional level."

“This landmark decision from the Romanian Central Bank opens the door for EU citizens, and soon for everyone everywhere, to significantly benefit from value flowing with near-instant settlement times, at 100x fewer costs, with full transparency, and higher reliability,” Elrond founder and CEO Beniamin Mincu said.

Elrond initially announced plans to acquire the e-money service in October 2021. The latest acquisition news comes shortly after Elrond acquired Utrust, a major crypto payments service provider, in January 2022.

The latest acquisition, together with the recent Utrust acquisition, aims to play a key role in the digitization of European finances and serve as the "carbon-negative, fully decentralized, inexpensive and near-instant rails for a wealth of new financial services," the company's representative noted.